For Coughlin, Another World Record

OMAHA, July 1 -- Maybe it would be easier if Natalie Coughlin wasn't one of the most gifted and multifaceted swimmers in the world. If that were the case, she could have bounded from the pool Tuesday night after the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. Olympic trials, embraced her newly minted world record, answered questions about her nerves and her accomplishments, and moved on to Beijing.

For Coughlin, though, it is not that simple, and it probably never will be, for what she does is often overshadowed by what she doesn't. Coughlin's program -- the challenges she accepts and the ones she declines -- can bring as much attention as her achievements. The 100 backstroke, in which she originally topped her own world record during Monday's preliminary heats, is, as U.S. Coach Mark Schubert said, "her signature event."

Coughlin showed why Tuesday night, fairly gliding across the water and finishing in 58.97 seconds, .06 of a second ahead of her record, and ahead of the surprising Margaret Hoelzer, who beat out Hayley McGregory of Texas, who had joined Coughlin in beating the previous world mark in preliminaries Monday.

"I don't think it was the prettiest of my swims," Coughlin said. "But it felt great -- world record!"

Such standard-setting talent, though, can be tortuous for Coughlin. She could compete in almost any event under 400 meters. She will not. It is all analyzed, from the physical demands of swimming twice in a matter of an hour to old nightmares she can't shake. There are quiet talks with her coach, Teri McKeever. There is pressure from within, pressure from without.

"There's huge expectations," McKeever said, "but there's opportunities with all that."

The backdrop is this: Coughlin won five medals at the 2004 Athens Games. She has been a national champion in five individual events in three strokes -- freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. She holds U.S. records in four events. Like the trials' featured swimmers to date, Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, her ability, at times, seems limitless.

"She can basically swim any event she wants," said 2004 Olympian Dana Vollmer, who also trains under McKeever at the University of California, "and do amazing at it."

For Phelps and Hoff, such a statement seems a blessing. For Coughlin, it can seem a burden. So much thought goes into choosing what she will swim, she said, "It is a bit stressful."

Coughlin's program here includes the 100 backstroke and the 100 freestyle. It will not include the 200 freestyle, an event she also skipped in 2004 -- though her time on her leg of the 4x200 relay would have won gold in the individual event. It doesn't include the 100 butterfly, with its Monday night final too close to the semifinals of the 100 back. As Coughlin said, "I don't turn around that quickly."

And all this does not broach the topic of the 200 individual medley. It could be Coughlin's best event, yet it nearly broke her. As a teenager at the 2000 Olympic trials, she swam poorly. A favorite coming in, she finished fourth, failing to make the Olympic team.

"There was a lot of expectations, and I think that was just a huge disappointment for her," Schubert said, "and I think she's kind of shied away from it since."

Competitively, she abandoned the race. "Is there baggage around a 200 IM?," McKeever said. "Yes."

Earlier this year, McKeever calmly tried to unload some of that baggage. In early June, she presented Coughlin a chance to swim the 200 IM at the Janet Evans Invitational. Coughlin, at least temporarily at ease with her demon, broke Hoff's U.S. record. Schubert hoped Coughlin might attempt the race at trials and, therefore, in Beijing.

This is where Coughlin differs from other elite swimmers. Phelps, for one, said he doesn't even know his plan before a meet, leaving it completely to his coach, Bob Bowman. McKeever, though, said she must feel out Coughlin. Even here, at trials, she nudged Coughlin gently when the 200 IM came up.

"My conversation with her [Monday] is as forceful as I get on what events she should swim," McKeever said. "It's being honest [about] why I think you should do it. But I'm not the one who gets on the block. I don't know what it feels like to have that expectation, to have that pressure. So for me to say, 'You can handle it,' that's not fair."

Tuesday night, Coughlin posted her record, then swam the semifinals in the 200 IM, the last event of the evening. She wouldn't say, though, whether she would compete in the event in Beijing, even if she qualified. "It's too early for that," McKeever said.

So the questions continue. How much is enough? How much is too much? Schubert was asked whether he'd like to see Coughlin swim more. He paused.

"I'd like to see Natalie win more events," Schubert said, "but I think it's up to Natalie and Teri to decide what's winnable and what's not winnable."